Services for comrades overwhelm firefighters

`It is too much,' says veteran as memorials amass

HIGHLAND MILLS, N.Y. — The memorial service for decorated firefighter Michael Montesi had all the features of a traditional hero's farewell, except one: thousands of uniformed mourners.

Historically the farewell to a fallen New York firefighter draws up to 10,000 colleagues, surrounding a church in a sea of blue uniforms. At the service for Montesi, a distinguished member of an elite rescue unit, the crowd of firefighters numbered no more than 400.

The New York City Fire Department is suffering a shortage of mourners, the combined effect of unimaginable losses, the demand for regular fire duty and the ongoing rescue and recovery effort at the ruined World Trade Center.

Fire officials and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani have made an unprecedented appeal to the public: Choose a firefighter's funeral or memorial service and attend it.

"The New York City Fire Department has never asked for help from its city. But we've asked for help now," Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen told the audience at Montesi's service Saturday, in his wooded hometown north of the city.

Indeed, for New York's battered firefighters, honoring the dead is overwhelming the capacity of the living.

"In 21 years as a firefighter, I'd never missed a single funeral," said Jim Stines of Engine Co. 35, as he raced from one memorial service to another. "But there's no way you could make even a fraction of what you would like to. It is too much."

While the city plans a collective memorial, the stream of individual services is expected to continue for weeks.

Eighteen services were conducted over the weekend throughout the city and a dozen suburbs.

The department has 343 members listed as missing or dead. That figure remained unchanged Sunday, even as the city lowered by more than 400 the total number of dead and missing -- to 5,533.

For the Fire Department, uniformed mourners are not the only resource falling short as it struggles to provide the pageantry that tradition requires.

Bagpipers kept busy

Earlier this year, a firefighter's funeral included 68 bagpipers and appearances by the governor, the mayor and dozens of other elected officials. Montesi's service had three bagpipers. The city was represented by a deputy commissioner from the office of general services.

Addressing the audience at Montesi's service, the fire commissioner acknowledged the strains on the 11,000-member force.

"Everybody is overwhelmed, we know that. But we're trying," Von Essen said. "The mayor would have loved to be here."

In other circumstances, Montesi's funeral would have mesmerized New York.

The 13-year firefighter was assigned to Rescue Co. 1, a unit dedicated to saving trapped or wounded firefighters. A New York newspaper last year named him "Hero of the Month" for a harrowing underwater rescue in the Hudson River.

Ten members of the unit, including Montesi, are missing or dead.

At Montesi's service, his sister, Maria Lauria recalled her brother's devotion to his work and family and pledged to look out for his three sons. Michael, 6, Ian, 5, and Ryan, 3, each in crewcuts and a crisp button-down shirt sat in the first pew near Montesi's widow, Nancy.

Outside the small white church, the assembled firefighters stood a solemn if modest sentry, filled out by retirees and volunteers from suburban departments.

Before the terrorist attack Sept. 11, bagpiper Jim Leach, 32, had played at more than a dozen funerals for fallen firefighters in his seven years in the Fire Department Emerald Society Pipes and Drums. He expected to match that number in the week ahead.

"The services are happening right on top of each other so we are spread out as much as we can," Leach said.

Encouraging the public to heed the department's call for mourners, he said: "If something were to happen to me, I would want my wife to see a large crowd of people. It's a way of showing that you know what sacrifice they made."

`We go to work. . .to funerals'

New York firefighter Tony Paige, 51, finished an overnight shift and raced out early Saturday to a service in Washingtonville for Battalion Chief Dennis Devlin.

"We go to work, we go to the rescue site, and we go to funerals," Paige said. "It is hard if you have a family because this is when they could use you most, and you can't be around."

The mourners for Devlin, a veteran officer and father of four, included an estimated 800 members of the department.

Others in the crowd never knew Devlin, including Karen Dawson, an administrator at the nearby Stewart Air National Guard Base. She hoped other civilians would respond to support fallen firefighters.

"Washingtonville is a very small community and we have five firemen that we have to have funerals for," Dawson said. "With all that these guys did, the least we can do is go out there and support them like this."